Google's latest high-profile acquisition is raising eyebrows worldwide, as the search giant has bought a Boston-based robotics company that specializes in lifelike walking machines built for military projects -- creations that have proven extremely popular in online videos.

Boston Dynamics has become famous for its advanced robots funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Its most notable creation is "BigDog," a four-legged robot that has gained a reputation online for being both fascinating and terrifying.

Google has confirmed toThe New York Times that it acquired Boston Dynamics, making it the eighth robotics company acquired by the Mountain View, Calif., operation in the last six months. Exactly what Google plans to do with the technology remains unknown, as does the price it paid for Boston Dynamics.

Google did say that despite the purchase of military-partner Boston Dynamics, the Android maker has no intention of becoming a military contractor on its own.

Google's robotics team is reportedly being headed up by Andy Rubin, who served as the head of the company's successful Android mobile operating system until March of this year. Under Rubin's leadership, Android became the defacto platform for handset makers such as Samsung, HTC, and LG.

One potential candidate for the Boston Dynamics purchase could be Google's interest in self-driving cars. However, that project is said to be part of the company's "skunkworks" division, known as "Google X," which is reportedly a separate division from the robotics arm headed by Rubin. The Google X division is also responsible for the company's wearable Google Glass project, which is currently in testing with developers but is not yet ready for public use.

Instead, an earlier profile of Rubin and Google's robotic aspirations by the Timesrevealed that current plans are focused on manufacturing, not consumers. Google's work could potentially automate portions of supply chain factories to manufacture devices like phones and tablets.

Apple is also doing similar work in the supply chain, though its efforts have not come with such high-profile acquisitions. However, it was revealed in November that Apple is investing a record $10.5 billion in supply chain robots and machinery to further automate the production of devices like the iPhone and iPad.

Executives at the company reportedly consider Rubin's secretive project to be a "moonshot." But the Times also portrayed it as more realistic than Amazon's "Prime Air" drone delivery service, which it hopes will be able to offer same-day packages dropped off by automated flying machines.

After watching that first video, it looks like there's something wrong with that thing; out of the blue it slows down and the engine shuts off. Whatever, just hope future iPhones won't be having this tag:

EDIT: Google has decided that it’s illegal for me to upload a fair use portion of I, Robot, despite hundreds of similar videos available on YouTube. It’s the scene where Will Smith comes in and shoots up the lady’s robot. “You know, somehow, ‘I told you so’ just doesn’t quite say it.”

One of their more potentially dollar-intensive advertisement delivery vectors.

Nothing beats the Motorola white elephant, though.

Motorola stayed the same for a while after the Google acquisition. It wasn't until fairly recently that they've started hitting the right notes such as ditching the Motoblur android skin, pushing out OS updates in a timely fashion, and appealing to the enthusiasts by honoring the warranty of the dev edition Moto X even after they unlock the bootloader.

Google remained quiet until Amazon made its drone announcement. From that moment, Google HAD to get itself in the robotic talk stream. Boston Dynamics provides Google an immediate presence in the robotics field. If you remember, manufacturing was the initial Google robotics talking points. Amazon's aerial drones are much more sexier than manufacturing robots to a company like Google. It will be interesting to see how long it takes tech experts to start writing how Apple is falling behind in the robotics arena even though Apple has already made investments in robotics in China and USA.

If Andy Rubin can make a viable business out of this and other robotics-related Google acquisitions, then color me impressed. Something just tells me he's in over his head and that this might be some sort of vanity project.

Motorola stayed the same for a while after the Google acquisition. It wasn't until fairly recently that they've started hitting the right notes such as ditching the Motoblur android skin, pushing out OS updates in a timely fashion, and appealing to the enthusiasts by honoring the warranty of the dev edition Moto X even after they unlock the bootloader.

The bootloader comes factory unlocked.

"Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example" Mark Twain"Just because something is deemed the law doesn't make it just" - SolipsismX

So... What are the other 7 robotics companies that Google bought in the last six months?

So... I can only find the names of two other robot companies they bought...
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His other acquisitions include Bot & Dolly, a design studio that makes an automated camera system used in movies such as Gravity, and Schaft, a spin-off from the University of Tokyo whose bipedal robots boast much stronger "muscles" than other bots.
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Mr. Rubin has secretly acquired an array of robotics and artificial intelligence start-up companies in the United States and Japan.

Among the companies are Schaft, a small team of Japanese roboticists who recently left Tokyo University to develop a humanoid robot, and Industrial Perception, a start-up here that has developed computer vision systems and robot arms for loading and unloading trucks. Also acquired were Meka and Redwood Robotics, makers of humanoid robots and robot arms in San Francisco, and Bot & Dolly, a maker of robotic camera systems that were recently used to create special effects in the movie “Gravity.” A related firm, Autofuss, which focuses on advertising and design, and Holomni, a small design firm that makes high-tech wheels, were acquired as well.

The seven companies are capable of creating technologies needed to build a mobile, dexterous robot. Mr. Rubin said he was pursuing additional acquisitions.

Some brief highlights:

Schaft is one of the Track A teams participating in the DARPA Robotics Challenge with their own custom robot based on the HRP-2.
Industrial Perception spun out of Willow Garage back in March of 2012; read our Startup Spotlight post on them here.
Meka Robotics builds research robots with series elastic actuators in them; they're probably best known for the M1 humanoid (pictured above in front of the Google logo) and Dreamer, which you can read about here.
Redwood Robotics is (was) a collaboration between Willow Garage, SRI, and Meka that was supposedly designing a very low cost robotic arm. We've been asking around and haven't heard much for the last year or so, maybe now we know why.
And of course, there's Bot & Dolly, which uses robot arms for precise and repeatable camera control, making things way more awesome than "precise and repeatable camera control" probably makes you think of.
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Happy that I don't have a 1000$ share of this company because I don't understand where they heading.

I don't own any GOOG either and I'm not 100% sure they know where they're going with this either. All I know is they have the money now to allow them to spend millions (or billions) on R&D that may not have a payoff.

Surely this purchase is intended to mesh with the driverless car project. Or maybe they are envisioning a factory without humans. Or as others have mentioned a home-bot.

I think the owners of Google just like cool stuff!

But honestly, any company with advanced tech like Google and Apple with extra cash to spare would be crazy not to get into the field of personalized robotics -- as it's the next step from these computing devices.

AS the population ages, the number one product is going to be some kind of personal care robot. And YES, robotics + driverless car is most of the tech you need for that.

Nothing may show of this for 5 or more years, but they are probably forward looking to start making patents around recognition of objects and terrain.

Executives at the company reportedly consider Rubin's secretive project to be a "moonshot." But the Times also portrayed it as more realistic than Amazon's "Prime Air" drone delivery service, which it hopes will be able to offer same-day packages dropped off by automated flying machines.

The following article mentions that Brin invested in Space Adventures among other things:

Advanced robotics would be good to have on a Space Adventure but definitely for automated meat production. When you see the stats in that article, it's clear they need to figure out a way to manufacture meat more efficiently.

While replacing smartphones running Android with actual androids would appeal to some people, sustainable food production is a very important issue.

I like the diversity of the projects Google is willing to undertake. Apple's approach of having a few products to fit on a table maintains their focus and quality but other companies with the financial resources required to tackle global issues like food and transport aren't stepping up to the plate to solve the issues.

Think of a world where all food is produced by machines, all transport is done by automated machines, all homes are built by machines and every home is powered by close to 100% renewable energy. This would surely allow every human being to live a comfortable lifestyle. It would lower the cost of living to near zero, which is where we should be. Every person deserves the right to live a comfortable lifestyle without struggling for it.

Some might argue that by taking away life's hardships, it would make people lazy and advances would slow down but the advances are made to achieve this state anyway and I think it would give people the opportunity to do work that makes them content.

There's a lot of risk in new large-scale ventures. If they aim too high and fail, the costs can destroy big companies. The alternative though is not to try at all and that's far worse. They'd just pile up a huge amount of cash that is of no benefit to anyone.